Blockstream locks down $55m to accelerate blockchain deployment

Momentum continues to build in the blockchain space with news that Blockstream just secured $55m in fresh funding to help accelerate the deployment and exploration of blockchain and bitcoin technology across different industries.

Sidechains

While many most-commonly associate blockchain with the financial industry, the firm is working with partners including PwC to help drive innovation around smart contracts, open assets and crypto currency across sectors ranging from games to logistics. The firm is working to drive application of the technology at protocol level using sidechain technology. It says sidechains enable cross-chain functionality across private and public blockchains, which helps cut costs and reduce fragmentation.

“We want to power interoperable markets that are fair and accountable. Openness, accountability and public ledgers should be the norm and should not require users to sacrifice privacy,” says the firm. “We seek to empower users with trustable and secure financial mechanisms via public auditability of their transaction history without disclosing more than is necessary for the integrity of the blockchain.”

Last year the firm announced its first commercial sidechain offering, dubbed Liquid. It’s designed to act as an interchange settlement service for Bitcoin exchanges and brokerages. It’s also inked a partnership with PwC to work on accelerating the deployment of the technology in different industries such as logisitics, hospitality, gaming, telecoms and finance plus work on new blockchain applications.

Funding

This latest funding brings the company’s total funding to USD76m and follows its previous round at the end of 2014. Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill says in the blog post announcing the funding that they decided to bring forward the timing of their Series A, despite having half their seed funding still in the bank, to capitalise on booming interest around the technology.

“The growing interest in blockchain technology created an opportunity for us to ensure we have the resources to sustain what is sure to be a marathon and not a race, building an open source infrastructure to re-architect the very dynamics underpinning trust globally,” saids Hill.

"Big players and traditional acquirers are struggling to get out of the commodity corner, to the point of providing agile services that allow them to be omni-channel and data-centric. That is what we provide, an opportunity to fulfill those goals."